WEBVTT 00:00:00.910 --> 00:00:04.629 Welcome to episode 230 of the GTO on 5G. It's 00:00:04.629 --> 00:00:07.830 the latest Insight Scoop on everything 5G. We 00:00:07.830 --> 00:00:09.810 cover six topics in about 20 minutes, and it's 00:00:09.810 --> 00:00:11.230 brought to you by More Insights and Strategy. 00:00:11.570 --> 00:00:13.490 I'm Will Townsend, and joining me again this 00:00:13.490 --> 00:00:16.690 week is fellow analyst Anshul Saag. Let's get 00:00:16.690 --> 00:00:18.850 started with my first topic. It's a gratuitous 00:00:18.850 --> 00:00:22.050 plug for something that I did this week, but 00:00:22.050 --> 00:00:25.769 I had an opportunity to speak with AT &T's network 00:00:25.769 --> 00:00:29.510 CTO, Egal Abez. I've known Egal for almost 10 00:00:29.510 --> 00:00:33.520 years now. And we spoke in support of the TM 00:00:33.520 --> 00:00:37.359 Forum. So the TM Forum held its Ignite conference 00:00:37.359 --> 00:00:40.880 in Copenhagen about a week ago. And Igal and 00:00:40.880 --> 00:00:43.479 I sat down for a fireside chat to talk about 00:00:43.479 --> 00:00:46.740 autonomous networks. If you're interested, you 00:00:46.740 --> 00:00:48.840 can hit my social media channels to actually 00:00:48.840 --> 00:00:52.179 watch the video. But the TM Forum is focused 00:00:52.179 --> 00:00:54.460 on three objectives. One, enabling autonomous 00:00:54.460 --> 00:00:58.880 networks. Also driving composable IT infrastructure 00:00:58.880 --> 00:01:04.650 and ecosystems. and also AI and data. And so 00:01:04.650 --> 00:01:07.769 from my perspective, what we focused on was AT 00:01:07.769 --> 00:01:10.349 &T's contributions to the TM Forum. So the TM 00:01:10.349 --> 00:01:13.049 Forum has working groups that are focused on 00:01:13.049 --> 00:01:16.569 this. And they use the analogy that's similar 00:01:16.569 --> 00:01:20.189 to autonomous vehicles and autonomous cars. So 00:01:20.189 --> 00:01:23.450 various levels of autonomy. Egal and I talked 00:01:23.450 --> 00:01:27.349 about AT &T's contributions. what the TM form 00:01:27.349 --> 00:01:29.969 is doing to drive standardization around this. 00:01:30.370 --> 00:01:34.269 And Igal and I also talked about within his organization, 00:01:34.489 --> 00:01:37.689 what they're doing with generative and agentic 00:01:37.689 --> 00:01:41.150 AI to provide automation to the network layer. 00:01:41.269 --> 00:01:45.109 Because ultimately, I believe the power of agentic 00:01:45.109 --> 00:01:48.370 AI is in its ability to facilitate automation 00:01:48.370 --> 00:01:51.469 on a very wide scale. So this is late breaking. 00:01:51.530 --> 00:01:54.049 The video actually just dropped today. But again, 00:01:54.129 --> 00:01:55.969 I encourage our viewers and listeners to go take 00:01:55.969 --> 00:01:58.510 a look at that. Anshul, you and I have talked 00:01:58.510 --> 00:02:01.730 about AT &T. They have been focused on programmability. 00:02:02.090 --> 00:02:05.090 They're partnered with Ericsson to do that. They're 00:02:05.090 --> 00:02:07.269 exposing APIs. They're doing a lot of different 00:02:07.269 --> 00:02:09.729 things. What do you think about the promise of 00:02:09.729 --> 00:02:11.349 autonomous networks? Are we actually going to 00:02:11.349 --> 00:02:14.469 see it within the next couple of years? I think 00:02:14.469 --> 00:02:17.629 it's an evolution of AT &T was leading the charge 00:02:17.629 --> 00:02:20.180 with software defined networks. And I was curious 00:02:20.180 --> 00:02:22.500 about where they were going to go with it. And 00:02:22.500 --> 00:02:24.879 I also think that autonomous networks are going 00:02:24.879 --> 00:02:28.960 to be necessary for 6G. So I think we're in a 00:02:28.960 --> 00:02:33.020 place where we want people to explore these concepts 00:02:33.020 --> 00:02:37.000 and develop them early because once the capabilities 00:02:37.000 --> 00:02:39.699 are there and the sensing, I think there's going 00:02:39.699 --> 00:02:42.979 to be a lot of opportunities to leverage these 00:02:42.979 --> 00:02:48.770 autonomous networks to preemptively. build in 00:02:48.770 --> 00:02:51.590 capabilities as the network evolves. Because 00:02:51.590 --> 00:02:53.789 the thing is, the networks are going to have 00:02:53.789 --> 00:02:56.689 to be constantly changing and adapting. And that 00:02:56.689 --> 00:02:59.310 complexity will only increase with 6G and AI. 00:03:00.189 --> 00:03:03.030 No, I totally agree. And we've talked about Nokia 00:03:03.030 --> 00:03:05.650 on prior podcasts as well. They have an autonomous 00:03:05.650 --> 00:03:07.849 networks platform. So this isn't specific to 00:03:07.849 --> 00:03:11.710 Ericsson or the TM Forum. But from my perspective, 00:03:11.969 --> 00:03:14.629 organizations like the TM Forum are critical 00:03:14.629 --> 00:03:18.210 in bringing ecosystems together. to drive innovation 00:03:18.210 --> 00:03:20.490 and faster time to market and that sort of thing. 00:03:20.550 --> 00:03:22.349 We'll keep it brief on that topic. But again, 00:03:22.389 --> 00:03:24.550 I encourage our viewers and listeners to go hit 00:03:24.550 --> 00:03:26.370 my social media channels if you want to learn 00:03:26.370 --> 00:03:28.789 more about that. But let's go to your first topic. 00:03:28.870 --> 00:03:31.569 And you want to talk about the big, beautiful 00:03:31.569 --> 00:03:34.370 bill. And there's a lot in it. I recently did 00:03:34.370 --> 00:03:38.069 some research and it's the sunsetting of EV credits. 00:03:38.210 --> 00:03:41.449 And there are a lot of other aspects to it. But 00:03:41.449 --> 00:03:43.930 for the purposes of our podcast, you want to 00:03:43.930 --> 00:03:47.310 talk about what it might mean. for the future 00:03:47.310 --> 00:03:52.810 of 5g and 6g yes first of all the fcc finally 00:03:52.810 --> 00:03:56.550 gets their spectrum auction authority back which 00:03:56.550 --> 00:04:02.509 is something that has long been not done and 00:04:02.509 --> 00:04:07.150 overlooked for some reason there is In the version 00:04:07.150 --> 00:04:10.389 that passed today, because this is the final 00:04:10.389 --> 00:04:13.710 reconciliation bill from the Senate back to the 00:04:13.710 --> 00:04:15.909 House, because the House sends it up to the Senate, 00:04:16.009 --> 00:04:18.189 then the Senate has their own version, then they 00:04:18.189 --> 00:04:20.689 reconcile and then they send it back down to 00:04:20.689 --> 00:04:22.509 the House. The reconciled version, which was 00:04:22.509 --> 00:04:24.810 going to go to Trump, once Trump signs it, it's 00:04:24.810 --> 00:04:27.550 law, which I think he most likely will. I don't 00:04:27.550 --> 00:04:29.449 really see there being anything that he really 00:04:29.449 --> 00:04:32.779 balks at. I think that there's... some interesting 00:04:32.779 --> 00:04:35.060 things about spectrum so there was a lot of talk 00:04:35.060 --> 00:04:37.600 that they might find because they were talking 00:04:37.600 --> 00:04:40.620 about 800 megahertz of spectrum here in the bill 00:04:40.620 --> 00:04:43.660 that i'm reading at congress .gov in the 4000 00:04:43.660 --> 00:04:46.100 section which is where all this science technology 00:04:46.100 --> 00:04:48.360 and transportation stuff is the big things that 00:04:48.360 --> 00:04:51.600 are being mentioned are there's 500 megahertz 00:04:51.600 --> 00:04:54.519 and three and 300 megahertz of spectrum which 00:04:54.519 --> 00:04:57.319 totals 800. it's very nebulous about where the 00:04:57.319 --> 00:04:59.839 spectrum will come from so that's not very clear 00:04:59.839 --> 00:05:02.379 yet but there are minimums that a minimum of 00:05:02.379 --> 00:05:05.480 200 megahertz needs to be found after two years 00:05:05.480 --> 00:05:07.480 and then more spectrum needs to be founded for 00:05:07.480 --> 00:05:10.699 four years additionally there's also provisions 00:05:10.699 --> 00:05:14.660 to kill The remaining funding from the CHIPS 00:05:14.660 --> 00:05:18.180 Act, there was $850 million for semiconductor 00:05:18.180 --> 00:05:22.839 supply chains for specific 5G, 6G technologies. 00:05:22.839 --> 00:05:25.680 That $850 million is being rescinded because 00:05:25.680 --> 00:05:28.279 if it was not allocated, it's being rescinded. 00:05:28.379 --> 00:05:30.939 And then there's some other things that are going 00:05:30.939 --> 00:05:34.019 to be relevant in terms of like... Energy, there's 00:05:34.019 --> 00:05:35.879 going to be a lot of challenges, I believe, in 00:05:35.879 --> 00:05:38.860 long term with some of these green energy things 00:05:38.860 --> 00:05:40.879 that are being rescinded. Specifically on nuclear 00:05:40.879 --> 00:05:42.920 energy, there are some nuclear energy credits 00:05:42.920 --> 00:05:44.279 that are going to be rescinded, which I think 00:05:44.279 --> 00:05:47.079 is a mistake because so much of AI is going to 00:05:47.079 --> 00:05:50.040 be dependent on power and going backwards in 00:05:50.040 --> 00:05:52.399 terms of energy consumption because the truth 00:05:52.399 --> 00:05:54.300 is that a lot of the green stuff has been... 00:05:54.759 --> 00:05:56.800 good for business. And I think the nuclear stuff, 00:05:56.819 --> 00:05:58.339 especially, I think there are some definitely 00:05:58.339 --> 00:06:00.220 challenges that are going to happen down the 00:06:00.220 --> 00:06:02.860 road with power. But other than that, the big 00:06:02.860 --> 00:06:05.540 ones are really that they get their authority 00:06:05.540 --> 00:06:08.319 back and that their spectrum, there was some 00:06:08.319 --> 00:06:11.120 talk about open RAN as well, but I don't see 00:06:11.120 --> 00:06:13.639 any of that in the bill. So I'm not going to. 00:06:14.240 --> 00:06:16.459 comment on that, but there was definitely some 00:06:16.459 --> 00:06:19.699 talk that open RAN might lose its grants because 00:06:19.699 --> 00:06:22.519 it's not relevant to the current administration, 00:06:22.800 --> 00:06:24.839 but I don't see anything in the bill. I looked 00:06:24.839 --> 00:06:26.800 for RAN and open RAN and all kinds of stuff in 00:06:26.800 --> 00:06:28.839 the bill. I didn't see it. It's a very long bill. 00:06:28.899 --> 00:06:30.879 It's HR1, which is technically the first bill 00:06:30.879 --> 00:06:34.420 for the house. It is many pages. Control F is 00:06:34.420 --> 00:06:38.259 a powerful tool and it's the official text. So 00:06:38.259 --> 00:06:42.279 I'm going by that. Yeah, man, so I haven't dove 00:06:42.279 --> 00:06:45.459 into, obviously, as deeply as you have. I'm really 00:06:45.459 --> 00:06:48.120 surprised that Open RAN isn't a priority for 00:06:48.120 --> 00:06:52.000 Trump's second administration, just given all 00:06:52.000 --> 00:06:54.759 of the focus, like when he was in office in his 00:06:54.759 --> 00:06:58.579 first term, around domesticating the telecom 00:06:58.579 --> 00:07:01.459 supply chain, the rip and replace of Huawei out 00:07:01.459 --> 00:07:04.660 of rural America. So I find that really surprising. 00:07:05.289 --> 00:07:07.930 That's not in it. But this is a monster bill 00:07:07.930 --> 00:07:09.930 to your point. It includes everything but the 00:07:09.930 --> 00:07:12.689 kitchen sink. It's no exaggeration that it's 00:07:12.689 --> 00:07:16.649 big. It cuts to Medicaid too. Yeah. But yeah, 00:07:16.829 --> 00:07:19.610 that's interesting. It will be interesting to 00:07:19.610 --> 00:07:21.810 see once it's signed. You and I should drill 00:07:21.810 --> 00:07:23.709 through it again and determine what the implications 00:07:23.709 --> 00:07:26.720 are for telecommunications in general. But hey, 00:07:26.819 --> 00:07:28.519 I'm going to continue that same theme with my 00:07:28.519 --> 00:07:30.420 second topic. And I want to talk about Orange 00:07:30.420 --> 00:07:33.759 and Samsung. And they're teaming up for a virtualized 00:07:33.759 --> 00:07:36.660 RAN deployment in France. And VRAN and Open RAN 00:07:36.660 --> 00:07:39.740 deployments continue over in Europe. Vodafone 00:07:39.740 --> 00:07:42.120 is embracing Open RAN quite a bit. A lot of proof 00:07:42.120 --> 00:07:45.180 of concepts. We're beginning to see some actual 00:07:45.180 --> 00:07:48.300 commercial deployments of it. But I found this 00:07:48.300 --> 00:07:51.720 interesting. So at a high level, and the city 00:07:51.720 --> 00:07:54.240 is unnamed, but it's somewhere in southwest France. 00:07:55.000 --> 00:07:58.079 There was an article on Light Reading that basically 00:07:58.079 --> 00:08:00.699 highlighted the fact that both companies are 00:08:00.699 --> 00:08:03.560 completing the first 4G and 5G calls on a pilot 00:08:03.560 --> 00:08:06.939 Orange network that ran on Samsung's VRAN technology. 00:08:07.600 --> 00:08:11.019 Triple band radios, the spectrum profile is 3 00:08:11.019 --> 00:08:14.399 .5 gigahertz. They're using massive MIMO technology, 00:08:14.800 --> 00:08:18.519 no surprise. And from my perspective, again, 00:08:18.600 --> 00:08:23.019 Samsung is a leader in virtualized RAN. That, 00:08:23.019 --> 00:08:24.579 you know, the RAND market, you and I have talked 00:08:24.579 --> 00:08:27.079 about this on several podcasts. That was the 00:08:27.079 --> 00:08:29.660 first out of the gate with these non -standalone 00:08:29.660 --> 00:08:31.779 deployments and then core to follow to get to 00:08:31.779 --> 00:08:35.480 standalone. So the RAND market has stalled. Certainly 00:08:35.480 --> 00:08:38.840 all of the RAND solution providers, Nokia, Ericsson, 00:08:38.840 --> 00:08:42.240 and Samsung networks have experienced dips in 00:08:42.240 --> 00:08:45.740 that category. While it's hard to understand 00:08:45.740 --> 00:08:48.059 what's real and what's not for obvious reasons 00:08:48.059 --> 00:08:51.750 there. But virtualized RAN, it's a highly efficient, 00:08:52.009 --> 00:08:57.330 it is a CapEx light approach to deployment. And 00:08:57.330 --> 00:08:59.570 especially when you look at the European market, 00:08:59.649 --> 00:09:02.009 where there's a lot of RAN sharing that goes 00:09:02.009 --> 00:09:03.809 on, we don't have that in the United States. 00:09:04.269 --> 00:09:07.269 It's an opportunity, I believe, for mobile network 00:09:07.269 --> 00:09:10.909 operators that want to have some level of independence 00:09:10.909 --> 00:09:14.230 when it comes to their RAN infrastructure to 00:09:14.230 --> 00:09:16.149 lean into things like VRAN. I don't know if you 00:09:16.149 --> 00:09:20.120 caught the news, but any further thoughts? No, 00:09:20.240 --> 00:09:22.279 I didn't catch the news, but I also don't have 00:09:22.279 --> 00:09:25.500 that many thoughts. I think in general, Europe 00:09:25.500 --> 00:09:29.840 is a very different market. And it's good to 00:09:29.840 --> 00:09:32.539 see Samsung having some success there because 00:09:32.539 --> 00:09:35.539 they've had a lot of success in the US. And it's 00:09:35.539 --> 00:09:37.019 great to see that they're replicating some of 00:09:37.019 --> 00:09:40.000 that in Europe. Yeah, no, I agree. Hey, let's 00:09:40.000 --> 00:09:41.820 go to your second topic. And you want to talk 00:09:41.820 --> 00:09:45.820 about AT &T. And our POTUS recently criticized 00:09:45.820 --> 00:09:49.889 AT &T for a bad conference call. But AT &T responded. 00:09:50.169 --> 00:09:52.669 So you want to share your insights? Yeah. So 00:09:52.669 --> 00:09:54.870 I very much did not participate in this conference 00:09:54.870 --> 00:09:58.049 call. I don't know what happened, but I think 00:09:58.049 --> 00:09:59.870 it was like a faith leaders conference call. 00:10:00.190 --> 00:10:05.070 And he was saying that AT &T was the reason why 00:10:05.070 --> 00:10:07.429 that conference call didn't work and there were 00:10:07.429 --> 00:10:10.309 technical issues. But AT &T responded saying 00:10:10.309 --> 00:10:14.429 that their network wasn't the problem and that, 00:10:14.529 --> 00:10:18.309 and he said that he's the boss of. That if the 00:10:18.309 --> 00:10:20.830 boss of AT &T could get involved, it would be 00:10:20.830 --> 00:10:22.590 good because there's tens of thousands of people 00:10:22.590 --> 00:10:26.149 on the line. But it's very unclear whether AT 00:10:26.149 --> 00:10:28.169 &T was actually the reason why the call didn't 00:10:28.169 --> 00:10:30.610 work or why they had to reschedule the call. 00:10:30.690 --> 00:10:34.309 While they may have to reschedule the call and 00:10:34.309 --> 00:10:36.830 that maybe we'll use a different carrier next 00:10:36.830 --> 00:10:39.950 time. But AT &T said that it wasn't really their 00:10:39.950 --> 00:10:42.330 technology that was a problem. So it's very unclear 00:10:42.330 --> 00:10:47.769 what was behind that. tens of thousands of people 00:10:47.769 --> 00:10:51.710 on any call, whether it's Zoom or AT &T or anything. 00:10:52.269 --> 00:10:54.990 Those are always a challenge and maybe there 00:10:54.990 --> 00:10:56.629 should be a platform for those kinds of things. 00:10:56.789 --> 00:10:59.809 But yeah, it was really interesting to see AT 00:10:59.809 --> 00:11:01.730 &T responding and the Trump calling them out 00:11:01.730 --> 00:11:05.470 specifically. Yeah. Yeah. It's mind blowing. 00:11:05.669 --> 00:11:08.029 The level of knowledge that our elected leadership 00:11:08.029 --> 00:11:11.850 has. Networks peer. You have, we have ingress 00:11:11.850 --> 00:11:15.179 and egress over the internet. private networks, 00:11:15.480 --> 00:11:19.320 public networks. And so it's very difficult to 00:11:19.320 --> 00:11:22.320 assign blame. Now, there are lots of monitoring 00:11:22.320 --> 00:11:26.539 tools like Cisco's ThousandEyes has an internet 00:11:26.539 --> 00:11:28.799 outage map. In fact, if our viewers and listeners 00:11:28.799 --> 00:11:32.139 want to go hit it, just use the Googles and Google 00:11:32.139 --> 00:11:35.100 ThousandEyes. And it's very informative and it 00:11:35.100 --> 00:11:37.500 shows you the performance of the internet, basically. 00:11:37.740 --> 00:11:41.179 But yeah, it's just another example. When I recall. 00:11:41.879 --> 00:11:44.379 You know, the Facebook hearings when Mark Zuckerberg 00:11:44.379 --> 00:11:46.919 was on Capitol Hill and some of the questions 00:11:46.919 --> 00:11:49.139 that came from our elected officials, it just 00:11:49.139 --> 00:11:50.980 blows your mind. It's okay. These are the folks 00:11:50.980 --> 00:11:53.480 that are actually putting bills together and 00:11:53.480 --> 00:11:56.559 voting on bills and that sort of thing. So yeah, 00:11:56.639 --> 00:11:58.600 someone needs to educate the POTUS on how all 00:11:58.600 --> 00:12:00.580 that plumbing and all that connectivity works. 00:12:00.799 --> 00:12:03.500 But hey, with that, I'm going to go hit my third 00:12:03.500 --> 00:12:05.820 and final topic. And I want to talk about LG. 00:12:06.019 --> 00:12:08.039 And I found this to be a pretty interesting use 00:12:08.039 --> 00:12:12.440 case. They're leaning into private 5G for a facility 00:12:12.440 --> 00:12:15.700 in Tennessee that is the basis for their home 00:12:15.700 --> 00:12:18.679 appliance manufacturing. And I found this really 00:12:18.679 --> 00:12:21.720 incredible. So this is in a town that's about 00:12:21.720 --> 00:12:23.500 an hour north of Nashville near the Kentucky 00:12:23.500 --> 00:12:27.419 border on a road called Life's Good Way. So if 00:12:27.419 --> 00:12:29.820 you know anything, LG stands for Lucky Gold Star. 00:12:30.159 --> 00:12:32.759 And so there's a connection there and they've 00:12:32.759 --> 00:12:35.279 named the street this. But what's amazing is 00:12:35.279 --> 00:12:38.519 that this facility can produce a washing machine. 00:12:39.100 --> 00:12:43.159 every 13 seconds like how can they do that how 00:12:43.159 --> 00:12:45.000 do you think they can do that man it's magic 00:12:45.000 --> 00:12:48.399 right you know what some they want to know something 00:12:48.399 --> 00:12:52.360 interesting what i was supposed to go to that 00:12:52.360 --> 00:12:56.460 facility um invited because and i almost went 00:12:56.460 --> 00:12:58.980 because i was really excited about the private 00:12:58.980 --> 00:13:02.559 5g aspect of this factory Yeah, that's the fact 00:13:02.559 --> 00:13:05.419 that it's washers and dryers, but that it's very 00:13:05.419 --> 00:13:08.460 highly technical factory, but also utilizing 00:13:08.460 --> 00:13:11.200 private 5G. Unfortunately, I've just had so much 00:13:11.200 --> 00:13:14.220 travel in the last month that I like I just couldn't 00:13:14.220 --> 00:13:17.879 do it because I was it was the one week I was 00:13:17.879 --> 00:13:20.379 home for the month and I wasn't going to try 00:13:20.379 --> 00:13:23.299 and go to Tennessee for that. But yeah, I was 00:13:23.299 --> 00:13:25.720 actually invited by LG to go and I would have 00:13:25.720 --> 00:13:27.720 loved to make that a topic of my own. But because 00:13:27.720 --> 00:13:30.259 I didn't go, I didn't really lean into it. But 00:13:30.259 --> 00:13:32.639 yeah, it's cool that more and more companies 00:13:32.639 --> 00:13:35.299 are leveraging private 5G for manufacturing. 00:13:35.679 --> 00:13:40.580 A lot of it's to give the AGVs and other tools 00:13:40.580 --> 00:13:44.399 and equipment access to the internet so they 00:13:44.399 --> 00:13:48.659 can do AI onsite locally and also pipe in new 00:13:48.659 --> 00:13:51.259 models and things like that. And what I've noticed 00:13:51.259 --> 00:13:53.429 is... A lot of these companies that are doing 00:13:53.429 --> 00:13:56.470 it are Korean. So we're seeing Hyundai do it 00:13:56.470 --> 00:14:00.389 in Georgia. We're seeing LG doing it in Tennessee. 00:14:01.690 --> 00:14:05.090 I'm sure Samsung is using private 5G in their 00:14:05.090 --> 00:14:08.029 own installations in Korea. I think the Koreans 00:14:08.029 --> 00:14:09.789 are definitely more forward -thinking in a lot 00:14:09.789 --> 00:14:11.649 of ways. And I think a lot of companies could 00:14:11.649 --> 00:14:13.529 be learning lessons from them. But that's my 00:14:13.529 --> 00:14:15.190 input from this, other than the fact that I probably 00:14:15.190 --> 00:14:16.429 should have been there and would have had cool 00:14:16.429 --> 00:14:19.070 insights if I was there. I'm going to try to 00:14:19.070 --> 00:14:22.059 get that rescheduled for you and I. But what's 00:14:22.059 --> 00:14:23.960 really interesting is I read through this light 00:14:23.960 --> 00:14:25.519 reading article, another light reading article, 00:14:25.799 --> 00:14:28.659 they deployed that private 5G network a couple 00:14:28.659 --> 00:14:33.159 of years ago. And because they found that their 00:14:33.159 --> 00:14:38.080 250 access points weren't providing the deterministic 00:14:38.080 --> 00:14:39.779 connectivity that's needed for many of those 00:14:39.779 --> 00:14:41.899 use cases that you were just mentioning, like 00:14:41.899 --> 00:14:46.139 AGVs and automated pools, and even the sort of 00:14:46.139 --> 00:14:48.379 the backend sort of transportation and logistics 00:14:48.379 --> 00:14:51.480 aspect. And at the end of the day, Typically 00:14:51.480 --> 00:14:54.879 what I like to say, Wi -Fi and 5G are better 00:14:54.879 --> 00:14:57.820 together. But when it comes to very deterministic 00:14:57.820 --> 00:15:01.799 use cases, like robotics, like HEVs, where there's 00:15:01.799 --> 00:15:05.399 no margin for error, or computer vision used 00:15:05.399 --> 00:15:08.460 to inspect the final assembly and that sort of 00:15:08.460 --> 00:15:11.120 thing, this is where 5G really shines. And I 00:15:11.120 --> 00:15:14.269 love this use case. And, you know, that's funny 00:15:14.269 --> 00:15:16.309 that I had no idea that you had been invited 00:15:16.309 --> 00:15:18.809 by LG to do that. But I'll also mention before 00:15:18.809 --> 00:15:21.830 I wrap up, if you remember, this was like four 00:15:21.830 --> 00:15:24.710 or five years ago. Remember when you and I and 00:15:24.710 --> 00:15:26.830 Patrick Morehead, our fearless leader, we published 00:15:26.830 --> 00:15:31.129 a series of articles about the promise of 5G? 00:15:31.870 --> 00:15:34.830 And I do recall that manufacturing automation 00:15:34.830 --> 00:15:36.990 played an important role in some of the use cases. 00:15:37.049 --> 00:15:39.850 And more importantly, when I looked at the carrier 00:15:39.850 --> 00:15:42.669 set around the world, and we were calling first, 00:15:42.850 --> 00:15:44.649 second, and third place winners, if you remember. 00:15:44.889 --> 00:15:47.970 I called Korea as a leader, right? They were 00:15:47.970 --> 00:15:52.370 very early in to not only deploying. And it may 00:15:52.370 --> 00:15:54.769 not have been standalone initially in 2019 and 00:15:54.769 --> 00:15:58.129 2020, but they were certainly very focused on 00:15:58.129 --> 00:16:01.129 very discrete ease cases that demonstrated the 00:16:01.129 --> 00:16:04.070 power of the low latency, the consistent throughput, 00:16:04.409 --> 00:16:07.330 the encrypted aspects of that as well. And just 00:16:07.330 --> 00:16:11.070 overall, the more deterministic capability that 00:16:11.070 --> 00:16:14.909 5G delivers over Wi -Fi. So with that, my friend, 00:16:15.029 --> 00:16:17.169 let's go to your third and final topic. And I 00:16:17.169 --> 00:16:19.649 had caught this news as well. T -Mobile just 00:16:19.649 --> 00:16:22.149 recently completed a pretty substantial expansion 00:16:22.149 --> 00:16:23.889 in Florida, and you want to talk about that. 00:16:24.529 --> 00:16:27.669 Yeah, it's a big deal. Two billion dollars in 00:16:27.669 --> 00:16:32.769 one state. And basically, it's a realization 00:16:32.769 --> 00:16:35.389 that Florida is a big opportunity for T -Mobile, 00:16:35.529 --> 00:16:38.389 but also lots of people visit Florida from across 00:16:38.389 --> 00:16:40.710 the country. So it's important for them to have 00:16:40.710 --> 00:16:43.129 good coverage there. They invested two billion 00:16:43.129 --> 00:16:46.000 dollars. which will now improve coverage for 00:16:46.000 --> 00:16:49.179 22 million Floridians and support emergency response 00:16:49.179 --> 00:16:52.700 systems, smart city initiatives. But also, the 00:16:52.700 --> 00:16:56.940 project involved 1 ,282 new or retained sites 00:16:56.940 --> 00:17:00.360 from the merger with Sprint, around 1 ,350 sites 00:17:00.360 --> 00:17:04.160 upgraded across the state, and hardening 1 ,375 00:17:04.160 --> 00:17:06.359 states to improve emergency response and disaster 00:17:06.359 --> 00:17:09.700 recovery, which in Florida is a big deal. Another 00:17:09.700 --> 00:17:12.539 interesting stat is that average statewide 5G 00:17:12.539 --> 00:17:15.880 download speeds are now 266 megabytes per second, 00:17:16.019 --> 00:17:19.599 which is a 216 increase since 2021 and nearly 00:17:19.599 --> 00:17:22.220 100 % of Floridians are now covered by T -Mobile 00:17:22.220 --> 00:17:25.440 5G network, the company claims. And yeah, it's 00:17:25.440 --> 00:17:27.339 they're definitely improving the network experience 00:17:27.339 --> 00:17:30.779 and it can translate to better customer outcomes 00:17:30.779 --> 00:17:34.539 and also better profits and user experiences 00:17:34.539 --> 00:17:38.440 for its consumer and enterprise customers. Looking 00:17:38.440 --> 00:17:41.509 at the new coverage map, it looks like a lot 00:17:41.509 --> 00:17:44.609 of ultracapacity along the coasts, and then a 00:17:44.609 --> 00:17:48.470 ton of it near Orlando. And look at it, like 00:17:48.470 --> 00:17:51.210 most of the state is actually ultracapacity now 00:17:51.210 --> 00:17:53.589 compared to what it used to be, where it was 00:17:53.589 --> 00:17:57.009 just along the water. Now, I would say just looking 00:17:57.009 --> 00:18:00.210 at it, it's 80 % ultracapacity and then very 00:18:00.210 --> 00:18:04.150 little extended range LTE and a few satellite 00:18:04.150 --> 00:18:06.869 spots. So they're incorporating satellite. The 00:18:06.869 --> 00:18:09.109 Everglades looks like it's satellite and some 00:18:09.109 --> 00:18:12.299 parts near Tallahassee. But for the most part, 00:18:12.339 --> 00:18:15.000 the state's pretty much deep purple with a few 00:18:15.000 --> 00:18:17.640 hints of magenta, which is lower frequency stuff. 00:18:17.980 --> 00:18:21.920 And they're already doing private networks deployments 00:18:21.920 --> 00:18:25.720 in Miller Electric. They're doing some ANS stuff 00:18:25.720 --> 00:18:29.359 for autonomous bus -shaped shuttles. There's 00:18:29.359 --> 00:18:30.900 all kinds of things that they're doing to advance. 00:18:32.039 --> 00:18:34.799 technology for the state. And I think I don't 00:18:34.799 --> 00:18:36.400 have any plans of going to Florida anytime soon. 00:18:36.500 --> 00:18:39.000 I know you have a place there, so you'll probably 00:18:39.000 --> 00:18:41.960 benefit from this. But yeah, it's great. I would 00:18:41.960 --> 00:18:44.119 love to see more of this, but $2 billion is a 00:18:44.119 --> 00:18:46.819 lot to invest in just one state. It really is. 00:18:46.960 --> 00:18:48.599 And when you think about Florida and you think 00:18:48.599 --> 00:18:50.980 about the tourism industry there, you think about 00:18:50.980 --> 00:18:54.119 Orlando where you've got Disney World and the 00:18:54.119 --> 00:18:57.279 ability to use a very highly performant 5G network 00:18:57.279 --> 00:19:00.500 to do things like autonomous shuttle. sort of 00:19:00.500 --> 00:19:03.220 navigation. I've seen that demonstration at Peachtree 00:19:03.220 --> 00:19:06.779 Corners in Georgia where T -Mobile has a proof 00:19:06.779 --> 00:19:09.880 of concept lab called the Curiosity Lab. But 00:19:09.880 --> 00:19:12.839 yeah, and then if you just look at also the enterprise 00:19:12.839 --> 00:19:16.299 applications, you have the Port of Miami as well. 00:19:16.480 --> 00:19:20.420 It's a big port. And as you and I know, 5G has 00:19:20.420 --> 00:19:22.619 been a poster child use case for port operations 00:19:22.619 --> 00:19:24.420 and that sort of thing. I would like to see more 00:19:24.420 --> 00:19:26.220 coverage in the Florida Keys where I live in 00:19:26.220 --> 00:19:28.660 Isla Mirada. I think there's a lot of opportunity 00:19:28.660 --> 00:19:31.980 down there as well. I'll be fishing with my brother 00:19:31.980 --> 00:19:35.099 and his two sons later this month. And not that 00:19:35.099 --> 00:19:37.019 you necessarily need connectivity when you're 00:19:37.019 --> 00:19:39.839 out in the ocean because you're focused on catching 00:19:39.839 --> 00:19:43.039 fish. But I will tell you, I use an app that 00:19:43.039 --> 00:19:47.240 requires connectivity to identify fish to make 00:19:47.240 --> 00:19:49.000 sure that whatever you're about to land in the 00:19:49.000 --> 00:19:51.769 boat is not going to kill you or sting you. be 00:19:51.769 --> 00:19:54.369 endangered or that sort of thing. So I think 00:19:54.369 --> 00:19:56.390 there would be an opportunity for improving connectivity. 00:19:56.589 --> 00:19:58.650 And that's where maybe T -Mobile's partnership 00:19:58.650 --> 00:20:02.109 with Starlink can come into play. But I love 00:20:02.109 --> 00:20:04.589 that, man. My second home. Can't wait to be there 00:20:04.589 --> 00:20:07.710 in a few weeks. I know you're in Sonoma this 00:20:07.710 --> 00:20:10.230 week. Any travel coming up for you after that? 00:20:10.349 --> 00:20:12.730 You're going to be with Samsung, right? I will 00:20:12.730 --> 00:20:16.549 be at Samsung Galaxy Unpacked. on Wednesday when 00:20:16.549 --> 00:20:18.410 it's announced. I'll probably be traveling that 00:20:18.410 --> 00:20:20.329 Thursday. I'm not sure I'll be able to make it 00:20:20.329 --> 00:20:22.369 to do the podcast that day, but maybe on Friday, 00:20:22.529 --> 00:20:25.230 we'll see. I'm going to probably be driving to 00:20:25.230 --> 00:20:27.329 back down to San Diego on Saturday. That's the 00:20:27.329 --> 00:20:30.349 situation, but I'll have all the news for the 00:20:30.349 --> 00:20:34.410 next podcast around all the upcoming Galaxy foldables. 00:20:35.089 --> 00:20:36.990 Cool. I know our viewers and listeners will be 00:20:36.990 --> 00:20:38.670 interested in that. I don't have any business 00:20:38.670 --> 00:20:40.890 travel for the month of July, like I mentioned. 00:20:41.089 --> 00:20:43.230 I'm going to go fish with my brother and his 00:20:43.230 --> 00:20:46.369 kids. Enjoy. Yeah, and then just take some needed 00:20:46.369 --> 00:20:48.930 time off. But hey, my friend, it's been another 00:20:48.930 --> 00:20:52.170 great podcast. Before we end it, though, let's 00:20:52.170 --> 00:20:54.509 wish our viewers and listeners a very happy 4th 00:20:54.509 --> 00:20:56.849 of July. We're getting a lot of rain in Bastrop, 00:20:56.930 --> 00:20:59.329 Texas today. I'm hoping that rain breaks for 00:20:59.329 --> 00:21:01.529 tomorrow. Why don't you take us home, Anshul? 00:21:02.529 --> 00:21:04.750 Absolutely. We hope our viewers and listeners 00:21:04.750 --> 00:21:07.190 found this week's topics interesting. If anyone 00:21:07.190 --> 00:21:08.849 would like to provide insights for a specific 00:21:08.849 --> 00:21:11.500 5G topic for a future podcast, please reach out 00:21:11.500 --> 00:21:13.839 to us on social media. Will is at WillTownTech 00:21:13.839 --> 00:21:16.460 and I'm at OnShellSide. We hope you have a great 00:21:16.460 --> 00:21:19.680 4th of July weekend and don't forget to rate 00:21:19.680 --> 00:21:20.059 and subscribe.